Complexes Quote by James Fenton

“The only obligation any artist can have is to himself. His works means nothing, otherwise. It has no meaning.”

— Truman Capote

It is the power of music to carry one directly into the mental state of the composer.

— Ludwig van Beethoven

For the virtuoso, musical works are in fact nothing but tragic and moving materializations of his emotions; he is called upon to make them…

— Franz Liszt

The musical emotion springs precisely from the fact that at each moment the composer withholds or adds more or less than the listener anticipates…

— Claude Levi-Strauss

“Words are most important. I never wanted to write a song about nothing. After all, the impulse towards music is at its heart an…

— Kevan Duke

I am a pretty omnivoracious reader in respect to prose style, but if the prose doesn't have its own music, if the relationship to…

— Laura van den Berg

If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.

— Gustav Mahler

“...music does not mean anything at all. You cannot ask it to speak to you in such concrete terms. It can evoke, affect, cajole…

— Imogen Robertson

The artist must yield himself to his own inspiration... I should compose with utter confidence a subject that set my musical blood going, even…

— Giuseppe Verdi

“One cannot listen to different pieces of music at the same time, a real comprehension of the beautiful being possible only through concentration upon…

— Kakuzō Okakura

“It was clear that the composer no longer consoled himself with the thought that music could express everything and did not require verbal commentary.”

— Solomon Volkov

“Music Doesn’t Need Interpreters and Translators”

— Ellen J. Barrier